


A Very Cannimal Halloween

by AVegetarianCannibal



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cannimal Sanctuary, Cannimals, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-29 18:44:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16270133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AVegetarianCannibal/pseuds/AVegetarianCannibal
Summary: Hannibal comes up with a couples costume to wear with Will at the Cannimal Sanctuary's Halloween party.





	A Very Cannimal Halloween

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU where all the characters are animals living in a version of reality called the Cannimal Sanctuary. Hannibal is a fancy little cannibal penguin. Will is the grumpy mongoose who loves him. I am borrowing the characters, which are the creation of [@byk23](https://byk23.tumblr.com/), who also contributed an illustration for this piece.

Will Mongoose was minding his own business, making a new fishing lure, when his cell phone suddenly came to life with an ungodly warning noise. He nearly jumped out of his fur in surprise. He fumbled for the phone and glared at the screen.

So Jack was using the Sanctuary’s alert system to send out party invitations now?? What a trifling use of resources. And attendance was “mandatory”? Ha! Hannibal Penguin would probably find such a demand so rude that Will would have to bodily hold him back from cooking Jack on the spot.

Maybe just this once he wouldn’t try to hold him back. Maybe he’d help.

A few moments later, there was a furious paddling of little webbed feet coming up the sidewalk to their home. Will prepared himself to savor to Hannibal’s tirade.

The front door slammed open.

“Will! My darling mongoose!” panted Hannibal, out of breath from running on his stubby legs so vigorously. He held up his phone, the screen still showing the alert. “Have you seen this?!”

“Yes, and I’m glad you’re home,” Will said. He rubbed his paws together, anticipating Hannibal’s delicious fury.

“I raced here with the grace, power and speed of a sea lion in open water,” Hannibal said. “We have plans to make at once.”

Oh, this was gonna be good. “I’m with you, babe. We’re a team.”

Hannibal tittered with excitement. “I’m so glad to hear that, my darling, because I’ve already come up with no fewer than _seven_ couples’ costumes!”

Will dropped the lure he’d been working on. “Wh-what?”

Hannibal gasped as he watched the lure fall to the ground. “Make that eight! I just came up with another. Oh, I hope there’s an award for best costume!”

***

**TWO DAYS LATER**

There was, in fact, going to be an award for the best costume. Will groused as the break room at Sanctuary headquarters filled up with partygoers.

Alana had painted over her zebra stripes so she looked like a regular horse, while Margot had added stripes to her own coat so she looked like a zebra. Bedelia was wearing a long cape and pointy witch’s hat, and was drinking out of a cauldron hanging from her tail. Franklyn was also wearing a cape, but he’d costumed himself as a vampire, adding fake blood to the tips of his tusks.

Everyone looked to be having a good time, but every once in a while someone would sniff the air and wonder aloud, “What stinks in here?” or, “Does anyone else smell that stench?”

Will tried to keep himself and Hannibal in the corner, as far away from anyone else as he could. He self-consciously scratched at the real fish scales Hannibal had affixed to much of his fur. The glue was making him itchy.

“I’m giving it five more minutes,” Will said under his breath. “Then we can say we came, and make our exit.”

Hannibal mumbled at his rear, his beak too full to speak properly. Will, knowing him well, interpreted it to mean, “Not until somebody figures out our costume!”

Chiyoh flitted by in her bee costume. “Are you supposed to be a mermaid? Wait–” She sniffed. “A _dead_ mermaid. A zombie mermaid?”

Will sighed and glanced back at Hannibal. “Is that close enough?”

“Nuh-uh,” Hannibal mumbled.

A little while later, Beverly wobbled over. She was much taller than usual.

“Are you wearing stilts?” Will asked.

She opened her lab coat to reveal she was standing on Jimmy’s shoulders, and Jimmy was standing on Brian’s. “We’re three mice stacked on top of each other,” she explained. “How about you? Are you that fish guy everyone wants to bang?”

“Not _everyone_ ,” Brian corrected her.

“Oh, don’t lie,” Jimmy said. “We share a Netflix account, so I know exactly what scene you always leave on!”

“I’m _not_ the fish guy,” Will said.

Jack, who had made himself up to look like a panda, trundled over and looked at him very carefully. He pointed with a stick of bamboo. “Wait! I know what you are! You’re whale vomit! Is that why you’re dangling a lure from your forehead? The whale swallowed it and vomited?”

Will let out a mighty mongoose shriek of utter frustration. He grabbed Bedelia’s cauldron and Jack’s bamboo stick, and banged them together to get everyone’s attention.

“I want you all to know I am _not_ a rotting mermaid!” he shouted. Blinks of confusion looked back at him. “I am _not_ the contents of a whale’s stomach! Nor am I some aquatic cryptid from your erotic fish fantasies!”

Bedelia took back her cauldron of booze.

“I am a deep-sea anglerfish!” Will went on shouting. “Or, rather, _we_ are a mated _pair_ of the deep-sea anglerfish known as  _Ceratias holboelli!_ ”

He swiveled around to reveal Hannibal, who was biting into the meatiest part of his mongoose tail. Most of his beak and face were covered with fish scales and glue.

Will held up his tail while Hannibal dangled from it. “This too-smart-for-his-own-good penguin picked out our costume.” Hannibal waved at the room with his tiny wing. “You see, the female deep-sea anglerfish is huge compared to her mate, who bites into her flesh like a freaky little cannibal, and holds on until her skin _actually grows_ over his entire freaky little face!”

“Mm mmph phft-pht awnf!” Hannibal mumbled.

“And they become one,” Will translated for everyone. “Her veins grow into his body, which wastes away until almost all that’s left are the gonads, which she uses to fertilize her eggs. He doesn’t even get to _eat_ on his own anymore.”

“Mmph?” asked Hannibal, his muffle sounding unsure.

“Yeah, he _literally_ never gets to eat again,” Will said to him. “Never, ever, _ever_ again.”

Hannibal pawed the scales and glue away from his face and released his beak’s grip on Will’s tail. “That’s horrific!” he gasped.

“You didn’t get that far down the Wikipedia page, _did_ ya?” Will asked.

Hannibal blushed, or so Will assumed, not being able to see beneath his feathers. “I stopped reading after the part where they become one.”

_Damn it!_ Will couldn’t stay mad at that sentimental, romance-obsessed little penguin, no matter how hard he might try, and boy had he tried over the years.

The room broke out in applause, with various sounds of _aww_ ing and sniffling, and calls to give them the Best Costume award. but Hannibal looked heartbroken.

Will sighed and pushed his glasses up his muzzle. “If we were _actual_ deep-sea anglerfish,” he said, “I would make sure to eat only very delicious people so you could enjoy them through me.”

Hannibal gasped and his avian eyes sparkled. “ _Will_.”

“Come on,” Will said, holding his tail out to Hannibal. “Let’s get outta here before these scales start stinking even worse than they already are.”

Hannibal bit onto his tail and Will carried them both toward the break room door.

Jack called after them. “Don’t you guys want your reward?”

“No,” Hannibal said, momentarily releasing his beak’s grip on Will’s tail. “We’re already each other’s reward.”

Will rolled his eyes, but grumbled, “Yeah, yeah. What the penguin said.”


End file.
